In short, the nearly 4-year-old red-light camera program became “cumbersome” and not “the best use of our resources,” Capt. Carl Povilaitis said.

Police sent a letter last month to the camera system’s operator, Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems, to terminate the program.

Glendale’s move comes eight months after the Los Angeles City Council and Police Commission unanimously voted to terminate their red-light camera enforcement for an array of reasons, including its cost effectiveness and payment of the tickets.

While state laws allow police agencies to use red-light cameras for enforcement, recent successful litigation challenging the legality of those citations also played a role in the decision to stop the program, Public Works Director Steve Zurn said.

“It just didn’t make a lot sense to keep going forward with it,” he said.

More than 5,800 citations were issued last year to motorists through the red-light cameras, police said.

Police have already started dismissing red-light violation citations, and local courthouses have been notified about the department’s decision, Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz told the Glendale News-Press.

Police will not pursue citations issued to motorists before Feb. 24, and will not contest a ticket that’s challenged in court.

Police sealed off a Glendale neighborhood Tuesday afternoon in a search, but a man who smashed the window of a parked Bentley on Tuesday was able to escape with a briefcase containing an unknown amount of cash.

Witnesses told police at least two other men fled the scene with him, shedding clothes along the way to alter their appearance as officers descended on the neighborhood to set up a search perimeter, theGlendale News-Press reported.

Officers temporarily locked down the neighborhood of Harvard to Ivy streets and from Pacific Avenue and San Fernando Road shortly after the incident was reported at 12:09 p.m. K-9 units were brought out in an attempt to track the men, who were able to evade the perimeter, prompting police to lift the lockdown.

Witnesses initially reported a possible fight on the 400 block of West Colorado Street after they saw a man kicking in the window of a white Bentley, which was parked at the rear of a business, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

The Bentley’s owner, a businessman who was inside the building, didn’t know his car was being burglarized when witnesses called it in, Lorenz added.

Witnesses described the men as in their 30s to 40s. The first suspect wore a black hooded sweat shirt and blue jeans. The second suspect had a beard and was seen in a white hooded sweat shirt.

The third suspect had a shaved head and was wearing a gray T-shirt, police said.